Congress Is Demanding That The FAA Make Room For The US Drone Fleet
Robert Johnson
BusinessInsider.com
2-5-2012
We reported yesterday that the past decade has seen unprecedented growth in the number of U.S. drones flying the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan.
With unfettered access to the occupied air space and burgeoning technology, the American UAV fleet has swelled beyond what was imagined before the wars.
Now, with ground operations concluded in Iraq and scheduled to end in Afghanistan by 2014, those new drones will be coming home and their pilots will need a place to fly them and train.
Which could be why Congress is calling for the accelerated use of unmanned drones in U.S. air space.
Steven Aftergood at FAS dug up the authorization bill before the Federal Aviation Administration requiring the agency to put “a comprehensive plan to safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system” within nine months.
The bill goes on to say “The plan… shall provide for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.”
The Rest…HERE
